Gay.Net founder Andy Cramer shares trailblazing history of gay online dating
World Book Encyclopaedia and when I found out that it was outlawed in most of the United States and was considered to be a psychological disability, I closed the book and went into the closet,” said Andy.After graduating from the prestigious Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in 1970, Andy embarked on a journey westward, at first settling in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
It was there that he opened his first retail store, but after four years in Albuquerque, Andy made his way to San Francisco, a city that would become synonymous with LGBTQ+ activism and progress.In 1977, Andy opened more stores – in the locations of Polk Street and the Castro District, and so began what would prove to be a lifetime of connecting LGBTQ+ people. “By the time I was 28, I had decided that there was nothing wrong with me and I started opening retail stores.
They were outrageous. They were bait. They were fun. In a city that stayed open till six o’clock at night, I opened my stores until 11 o’clock at night.
I had a DJ playing dance music, with all kinds of merchandise in the store, from clothing, to household furnishings, to jewellery and to leather … San Francisco was the epicentre of the gay world.”The onset of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in 1981 brought a shrouded crisis to the city.
